Parishioners pushing for carols before you digested your turkey?Organist refusing to play Advent hymns because he/she already has them planned for Lessons & Carols?Find yourself reading Luke and thinking of a variety of ways to tell Linus where to stick it? (Lights please.)Then this quick and easy Friday Five is for you! And for those of you with a more positive attitude, have no fear. I am sure more sacred and reverent Friday Fives will follow.Please tell us your least favorite/most annoying seasonal....

1) dessert/cookie/family food

Least favorite:fruit cake and other breads with the hard little “fruits.”

Favorite:Cookies, any kind without nuts.Yummy!Especially if they have almond flavoring.

Christmas morning:Grapefruit with special sweet rolls.

How about taco salad on Christmas eve?It is an easy, colorful supper to have half prepared before attending church.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

I just started a new blog about the secondary school we visited in Uganda called The Royal College of Kamuli. Royal means "The Royal Reign of Jesus." I'll be posting about the school on the new blog and more general posts about my trip to Uganda, East Africa, on this blog. Stay tuned!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

We have returned, safe and happy, with much to tell, but too tired to write and reflect right now. I met people of great faith, and I was inspired. I’m looking forward to some time to organize my thoughts and share my pictures. Thanks for your prayers!

May God richly bless you this advent season. Check back in a few days for some of my “travelogue.”

Friday, November 02, 2007

Tomorrow I fly “across the pond” and then I’ll fly to the Equator by Monday. Once there, I’ll be working and learning with other people on a Global Village house build (see map at link). After seeing a national park and the source of the NileRiver, I’ll be visiting an email friend at a Christian secondary school, then home with a stop in London. I hope I can post some pictures and commentary at the end of November.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

In my previous posting, I was recalling, from memory, a retired government official I had seen on TV who stated that the military had a policy that it was OK to kill a certain number of civilians to get at a specific enemy person. Reader SO questioned me, was this really the "official policy?"

Since I couldn't recall the name of the official and I haven't been able to pull up specifics on a 'net search, I shouldn't really be making that bold of a statement. The context of the interview I saw had to do with the inevitability of civilian deaths during war, and how many might be "acceptable."

I have done a search on Google, CNN, MPR, and ABC without finding the specific reference I wanted. If you put "civilian casualties" in a search engine, you will see larger numbers than you might imagine. One website, the IBC claims to have crossed checked numbers.

Maybe we could think of this as though we were in the Iraqi or Afghani shoes: How many incidental deaths would we think are acceptable when caused by someone who is supposed to be helping us?

Of course, there are complex happenings and causes in many of the situations. But a dead person's relatives grieve with real tears.